OReilly Gets "Shredded"

By close margin, diet doc gets to #1

Out with the old and in with the new—thats the situation in this weeks Nonfiction list. After an impressive 28-week run (and the last seven weeks at #1), Bill OReillys Killing Kennedy drops to second place— narrowly edged out by Dr. Ian Smiths Shred: The Revolutionary Diet: 6 Weeks 4 Inches 2 Sizes. Smiths no stranger to the national charts: his Fat Smash Diet and Extreme Fat Smash Diet topped bestseller lists for several weeks, and The 4 Day Diet also landed on national and regional lists. Shred started off as an Internet phenomenon, as. Smith started Tweeting tips from the diet to his followers, which grew into a "Shredder Nation" of some 5,000 people on the diet before the book was published. The authors one-hour appearance on the January 2 Dr. Oz Show (which re-aired January 8) propelled the book to the top of the national lists. St. Martins has created an extensive campaign thats included a CBS This Morning Weekend gig, Headline News/Morning Express, and two segments with Rachael Ray, plus Anderson Cooper, Joy Behar, Ricki Lake, The Talk, etc. A First magazine cover story is set for the February 4 issue, and Womans World has a feature scheduled for January 14.

Another county was recently heard from when talk show host Steve Harvey told Smith that 2013s the year for him to finally lose weight and get in shape—and that the Shred diet was the way to go. The loquacious Harvey said, "Im approaching 57 and I dont want to sit still and let old age take me away. Im gonna fight all the way." He officially announced his decision to become a "Shredder" on his January 7 morning radio show, with January 10 set as the first two taped segments on his TV program.

Smiths numerous credits include acting as a medical contributor on the Rachael Ray Show, host of the syndicated HealthWatch program on American Urban Radio Networks, and serving as medical/diet expert for six seasons on VH1s Celebrity Fit Club. He was the creator and founder of two far-reaching national health initiatives—the 50 Million Pound Challenge and the Makeover Mile. In 2010 Smith was appointed by President Obama to the Presidents Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition. -Dick Donahue

Diamonds Update on the World

Jared Diamond doesnt hold a candle to E.L. James when it comes to numbers. But then again, maybe it isnt fair to compare the two. After all, sex sells. Ethnology, not so much. Still, 1.5 million combined sales in hardcover and trade paper for 1997s Pulitzer Prize–winning Guns, Germs, and Steel is nothing to scoff at. (Fun fact: that same year also saw the publication of Diamonds Why Is Sex Fun?, but the book was overshadowed by Guns, Germs, and Steel, perhaps understandably—the public just wasnt ready for a treatise on lovemaking from a guy who wrote his Ph.D. thesis on the workings of the gall bladder.)

Debuting at #6 on our Hardcover Nonfiction list is the MacArthur fellows newest: The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? In our review, we praised Diamond for his "lyrical and harrowing" prose and lauded the book for its "empathetic portrait of human survival and adaptability." Amid the intensifying deluge of social media platforms, smartphone upgrades, Twitter feuds, and reckless #hashtagging, Diamonds take on the last couple million years of human history is a welcome (and intellectually thrilling) foray to a simpler time. But unlike those carnivorous proponents of the paleo diet, Diamond doesnt settle for simple lessons or nostalgia for the merits of the good ole days. He argues that neither traditional societies nor the First World have it all figured out. As we noted in our review, they both have their downsides: "infanticide and revenge killings" in the former, and "the ennui and atomization of modern life" in the latter.

The UCLA geography professor will be kissing his syllabi goodbye for a few months while he jets around the world in support of the book. January finds him stateside with an appearance on the Colbert Report on January 15, as well as stops in Philadelphia, Boston, and Hoboken, N.J., before heading back to the West Coast for a trio of events in California. After that, hes off to visit the rest of the world.—Samuel R. Slaton

A Father and Sons ‘Empire

Empire and Honor, by W.E.B. Griffin and son William E. Butterworth IV, debuts at the #2 spot on the Hardcover Fiction list. WWII may be over in the seventh Honor Bound book, but the pressure on OSS Lt. Col. Cletus Frade is not, due to Operation Phoenix, a Nazi contingency plan against wartime defeat that aims to establish South American bases from which to launch the Reichs resurrection. In Argentina, Frade initiates a covert op to prevent the makings of a nuclear weapon from reaching the wrong hands.

In addition to the Honor Bound series, Griffin is the author of five other thriller series: The Corps, Brotherhood of War, Badge of Honor, Men at War, and Presidential Agent. A veteran of the U.S. Army, Griffin served in occupied Germany after WWII and later in Korea. Among his many honors, he has been invested into the orders of St. George of the U.S. Armor Association and St. Michael of the Army Association of America, and is a life member of the U.S. Special Operations Association. He lives in Alabama and Argentina.

William E. Butterworth IV has worked closely with his father for a decade on the editing and writing of the W.E.B. Griffin novels. A former editor of Boys Life, the magazine of the Boy Scouts of America, Butterworth is a member of the Sons of the American Legion, China Post #1 in Exile, and the Office of Strategic Services Society. He lives in Texas.

—Peter Cannon

Gone Girl Comes Back

Considering the wild ride of Gillian Flynns runaway hit, there are going to be a lot of missing wives in novels and a lot of husbands in the hot spot, which is just where readers seem to like them. Gone Girl, which entered the list at #3 its first week out in June of last year, shot up to #1 three weeks later, slipped back, seesawed through July and then claimed the #1 slot all through August, with some serious numbers—almost 37,000 the week of August 12 (you know it was on every beach chair) and hasnt faltered since. Even when the ranking slipped to #9 in early December, it was still selling 20,000 copies, and considering the uptick toward the end of the year, Gone Girl was back on those beach chairs for the winter holidays in Antigua. Flynns two previous novels, Sharp Objects and Dark Places, also saw a major increase in sales, finishing 2012 with close to 100,000 each, but nothing trumps the disappeared spouse. That baby has legs. And sure enough, this week, Flynn is back on top, nosing out the venerable Grisham for #1, having finished 2012 with sales of over 700,000. A million cant be far behind.—Louisa Ermelino